Is conclave secrecy dead – and does it matter? (The Pillar): “A new book published on Sunday purports to pull back the curtain on the papal conclave which elected Pope Leo XIV last year.”
The U.S. war on Iran is manifestly unjust (Edward Feser – Blogspot): “Now we are at war with Iran, the cocky ‘one and done’ chatter suddenly thrust down the memory hole.”
Trump’s Iran Strikes Comport with Just War Theory (Providence): “Operation Epic Fury is, in fact, justified according to the framework of Just War Theory.”
‘Christ presented without compromise’ – the legacy of Benedict XVI (The Pillar): “The first pope to resign in nearly 700 years, Benedict was also known as one of the most consequential Catholic intellectuals of the modern era.”
Just War Theory and Epic Fury (First Things): “Just war theory is often treated as a moral checklist. This is a mistaken view. “
How Catholic Should a Catholic Institution Be? (Public Discourse): “The University of Notre Dame does not and ought not have the luxury of relegating moral and theological questions to the margins.”
Nicolaus Steno, the renowned scientist turned beatified Catholic bishop (Angelus): “What sets Steno apart from his peers is that he eventually converted to Catholicism and in 1988 was declared ‘Blessed’ by the Catholic Church.”
Don’t Know Jack About the Other C.S. Lewis? (Miller’s Book Review): “Lewis Had 3 Careers: Novelist, Lay Theologian, and Scholar. Here’s a Look at His Most Ambitious Academic Project”
David French Suffers An Apparent Brain Injury Over James Talarico (The Federalist): “James Talarico’s fake tent show preacher act has been a joke since the moment he began it, and every living animal with a central nervous system is aware of this. “
J.R.R. Tolkien’s dislike of Disney was not casual criticism … (Caylus’ Post – Facebook): “In Tolkien’s view, fairy tales were serious tools: they confronted fear, explored loss, and carried moral truth. They achieved what he called ‘eucatastrophe’—joyful resolution earned only through genuine peril.”
(*The posting of any particular news item or essay is not an endorsement of the content and perspective of said news item or essay.)
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@ The U.S. war on Iran is manifestly unjust
Edward Feser presents a solid argument based on Catholic just war theory, as does Gregory Moore’s counterpoints in his adjoining essay Trump’s Iran Strikes Comport with Just War Theory. How, then, do we form a presumably correct opinion on the U.S., Israeli war with Iran?
Accused of presumptively taking the ‘high road’ on moral political issues [can we realistically distance politics from morality?] on this war I’ll take the middle road. Although the middle course envisioned is not an endorsement of Feser nor of Moore. Why not?
Either we’ve analyzed the transformation of rationales forwarded for war since the end of WWII or we’ve remained affixed. That mix of reasons beginning with piecemeal incursion into another nation’s territory of interests to the development of hypersonic delivery systems, high tech drones, clandestine unleashing of deadly pathogens all of which can be unleashed without notice.
We’re in a different environment in which information gathering, intelligence is at a premium for survival. Information so exclusive that the rest of us are dependent on what a government agency is prepared to disclose. With that the moral response should be to place reasonable trust in a national government. In respect to the U.S. we should, from this writer’s perspective, have greater reason to do so. Unless we find reasons to which we have access that convince us otherwise.
@ The U.S. War on Iran (Feser)
Within his analysis, Feser writes: ” For a war to be morally legitimate, that there are realistic prospects of success must be established before the fact, and a lucky break cannot retroactively make just what was entered into unjustly.”
Responding to this specific point, we might recall what St. John Paul II wrote about the hopeless resistance by Poland to the overwhelming German Blitzkrieg of September 1, 1939:
“…despite the clear inferiority of her military and technological forces. At that moment the Polish authorities judged that this was the only way to defend the future of Europe and the European spirit” (“Memory and Identity”, 2005).
There is this difference, however, Poland, like (ironically, in the present context) Iran, *was attacked.*
The Poles did not make a *decision* to go to war, that is, *to initiate* lethal hostilities against Germany. (There is a legitimate discussion, however, for another thread: Did the Poles, under British pressure and war guarantees, influence the Poles to reject reasonable solutions to the Danzig corridor question and to engage in provocations against the ethnic Germans?).
Moreover, prior to the war, the manifest superiority of the Wehrmacht was not known. That only became known as the war progressed.
Being already under attack and losing, the decision to be made was then whether or not to hold out for as long as possible, and to hope that the ensuing declarations of war (and actions) by Britain and France against Germany, would perhaps help Poland’s ability to negotiate for a less disastrous defeat–which lesser disaster did not come about as we know.
In any event, if there is such a thing as a moral “fighting on” against a markedly superior power, in order to defend the future of a region, and to act was *a symbol of resistance to aggression and tyranny*–isn’t *Iran* doing precisely this in its resistance to US-Israeli aggression? In a nutshell, isn’t Iran more like 1939 Poland than the US-Israeli Empire (or Reich, if you prefer) is?
Another analogy might be whether it would have been morally justified for the United States to pre-emtively sink Admiral Yamamoto’s carrier fleet on December 6, 1941–the day before Pearl Harbor.
But, yes, you must be very well informed to know that the ayatollah had no blood on his hands, and that the nuclear enrichment and ballistic missile program was just a Potemkin Village mirage to maintain popular support on the home front.
@ Is conclave secrecy dead
The Pillar concludes by suggesting ways that Pope Leo XIV could address violations of the oath of secrecy regarding papal conclaves. Not spelled out is the provision of canon law— obliquely alluded to in the article: In Catholic canon law, the penalty for violating the secrecy of a papal conclave is automatic (latae sententiae) excommunication reserved to the Apostolic See.
Automatic, as in “automatic.” So, are the offending cardinals still even members of the Catholic Church, or not?
As to Just War and risk, the likelihood of success for the First Crusade, their just cause to ‘defend Christians from Muslim Seljuk Turks, recapture Jerusalem, and allow safe passage for pilgrims – logistics, distance and large embedded enemy were seemingly insurmountable. Prospect of success for bands of French Norman Knights [among the prominent Godfrey of Bouillon, and Southern Italian Norman Knights Bohemond, Tancred] would seem nil.
The Christian knights won. Godfrey of Bouillon took Jerusalem. Bohemond took Antioch, having defeated the defending Turkish army.
Then there’s the Battle of Lepanto, when a smaller Christian fleet defeated a substantially larger Turkish fleet in defense of Europe. But then , the victors were all Catholics. Our present crusade of sorts is against the Evil One’s hordes of heretics, the morally deranged, clergy scoundrels and liars. Although this fight is a spiritual one, sacrifice and prayers, moral valor with the just cause of vanquish or conversion.
But none of the other Crusades were successful and the Latin Kingdom fell at the end of the b13th C. The most lasting result of the Crusades was the bitterness Eastern Christians have felt towards the West since the 4th Crusade sacked Constantinople in 1204 and imposed Latin rule for almost 70 years.
Lepanto has been rather oversold. The Christian fleet had better ships and better weapons. The Sultan had his losses replaced within a year. The “miracle” that should get more attention is the seige of Malta in the same era.
Revisionist historiography will get you anywhere you wish. Constantinople was sacked due to the Greeks murder of Alexios IV Angelos, the son of deposed emperor Isaac II. Angelos had persuaded Boniface of Montferrat and the Venetians to help him reinstate his father and make him co-emperor of the Byzantines by diverting the Fourth Crusade to Constantinople.
In return, he promised 200,000 marks of silver as payment, as well as the submission of the Eastern Orthodox Church to Rome. Additionally he promised to pay for the provisions of the expedition and to join the crusade against the Turks.
Alexios IV Angelos was crowned Alexios IV of the Byzantine Empire, but was deposed by anti Latin factions then murdered. Riots broke out in the city and the Latin seafaring community of traders, mostly Venetian, Genoese, Pisans were also attacked and slaughtered, a repeat of the previous Massacre of the Latins 1182 of approx 60,000 mainly Italian traders living in Constantinople.
During the 1204 massacre the Venetians, stranded on the beaches, having been refused passage heard the screams of the slaughter. The Venetian commander ordered his knights to assault the city. The French knights joined them in the attack and pillaging of Constantinople.
The Popes have been calling for an era of evangelization not an era of war or for that matter violent double dealing and insolence.
I always say, America won the World Wars from a position of isolation, for both.
War Apotheosis coincides with Godel’s Loophole and Zionism; and is un-American.
”War Apotheosis coincides with Godel’s Loophole and Zionism; and is un-American.”
You’re becoming more nonsensical the longer you allow your hatreds to fester. Godel’s Loophole arguments, flawed with fallacies of his own, did not even target the real threat to democracy, cultural elitism institutionally enforced by agreed upon liberal reinterpretations of human nature through a corrupt judiciary. Our highest court has usurped democracy and tried multiple times to deny the humanity of large portions of humanity.
The lie that Zionism, which does not exist, assumes a controlling influence on America does not explain a reactive willingness to capitulate to a rogue nation sponsoring countless acts of criminal terror towards America, and elsewhere.
Well, yes, War Apotheosis, Godel Loophole, Zionism -all un-American.
And other things besides. And affecting not just the USA.
And not good lenses for weighing Iran against other Arab nations.
And not good lenses for assessing Iran’s prowess.
I think Dr Feser had some good thoughts on immigration recently but I don’t agree with his take on Iran. Preventing a nuclear armed Iran is legit.
Feser actually has none of the detailed and specific military intelligence he needs to draw an informed and nuanced perspective of the current situation in Iran. The military action has also not gone on long enough for us to make judgments about whether it is just or not. Maybe we should ask the people of Iran what they think about our military intervention, after they are done dancing in the streets, that is. Feser sits in his ivory tower pontificating about just war theory as a dishonest front for his TDS, which seems to be getting worse with each article he publishes. He certainly puts the “derangement” in Trump Derangement Syndrome, and because of that, he has no moral or intellectual credibility to speak to these issues.
Having enjoyed Edward Feser’s writings in the past, especially on the Death penalty, I find his article on the Iran war Deficient.
In describing preemptive and preventive war he seems to believe that peace existed in the Middle East prior to our bombing. Peace being in St. Augustine’s words the Tranquility of Order. Hardly.
In honesty, to oppose this war one should state clearly the alternative one favors, which would be to continue Iran murdering thousands of its own citizens, funding and supplying weapons to its terrorist agents – Hamas, Hezbollah, Houthi’s, etc. Also putting out fatwas (murder contracts) on people in other countries. Proposing more Dialogue is not a realistic alternative and only a way of avoiding reality.
I read an interesting analysis recently which said that this is a religious war. We may not see it as such, but Iran does. Therefore traditional criteria for accepting defeat does not apply. Iranian goals are to destroy the infidel – the Jews and Christians.
Please, no more Islam is a religion of peace.
@ J.R.R. Tolkien’s dislike of Disney was not casual criticism
The original 1812 Brothers Grimm version of Snow White is a dark tale of maternal jealousy, featuring a biological mother [later changed to a stepmother] who orders the huntsman to kill seven-year-old Snow White and bring back her lungs and liver to consume (History Club).
A Scottish friend used to refer to the delusional as Away with the Fairies.
My images of fairies were drawn from Disney, elsewhere of like benevolent creatures. Winsome, lovely, like Tolkien’s Goldberry. Or his magical swarms of nightly bell jingling high elves. Whereas Wilhelm Grimm and brother Jacob drew their tales from a much darker German folklore.
Caylus makes a valid point regarding Tolkien’s distaste for Disney, Tolkien an exceptionally avid reader of folklore very likely aware of the original Grimm brothers fairytales. Although, how true to the original forms of Nordic tales was Tolkien? He does appear to sanitize, embellish with wonderful finishes. Example are dwarves. Nibelungen.
Nibelungen, [actually German for Norse fairy creatures called Niflungar, who lived in Niflheim, the land of the mist. A mysterious, foreboding race akin in tone with Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen. A musical score that Werner Herzog used when the hapless Jonathan Harker discovers Nosferatu’s castle on the horizon.
At any rate light and beauty are a more welcome contrast, which JRR Tolkien, a faithful Catholic, adds to the varied, dark folklore of the fairy.
You’re joking right? Iran’s tyrannical depraved demonic commitment to continuing and expanding their tens of thousands (no exaggerating hyperbole) of crimes against humanity, has no parallel to the state of Poland in 1939, the fiction of a disputed Danzig corridor notwithstanding.
The Iranian rogue state at war with the rest of the world, constantly threatening a nuclear inferno for decades is no innocent victim.
I placed this post incorrectly. I intended a reply to Chris Albrecht above.